CAMARILLO — One of the final Day of the Dead events will occur this weekend when the 2015 Día de los Muertos Celebration will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 at Conejo Mountain Funeral Home, Memorial Park and Crematory in Camarillo.
This will be the final year the celebration will be led by Javier Gomez, director of the Inlakech Cultural Arts Center.
As he states in his flyer, “Mi Ultima Parranda — My Last Hurrah.”
“I have to give my time to my wife,” said Gomez, who will continue leading the Inlakech Cultural Arts Center. “I’m passing the reins on to someone else.”
The 2015 Día de los Muertos Celebration will feature a vintage lowrider car show, a Mr. and Mrs. Calaca pageant, a Norteno musical group from Oxnard, a rock ‘n’ español banda group and 805 Caliente.
The celebration will also include Alma de México folklorico dancers, Xavier ‘Big X’ Montes and his Angels on Harps performance group, Mariachi de Camarillo.
The event will be led off with mariachi and folklorico performers from Inlakech Cultural Arts Center in Oxnard.
Javier Gomz, left, addresses the crowd during the 2012 Día de Los Muertos Celebration. Amigos805 file photo.
The 2015 Día de los Muertos Celebration will also include a variety of food trucks, arts and crafts vendors, a muertos-themed art exhibit in the main lobby of cemetery’s offices, face painting, free prizes and altars created by members of local clubs from various Mexican states along an altar by the Mixteco / Indigena Community Organizing Project.
The event is usually held a week after the traditional Día de los Muertos celebration to put some distance between it and Halloween and to avoid conflicts with other local muertos events.
“We want people to have a chance to go to those events (on Nov. 1) and then come to ours,” he said.
Gomez said the celebration, which includes a traditional procession around the cemetery, has led to many positive changes. Families at the event are now encouraged to decorate the graves of their loved ones in the colorful style of Mexico, with candles and marigolds.
“We had people come up to us in person and say thank you,” Gomez said. “One man thanked me and my wife for putting on the event. He said ‘I was so sick the past year but now I can accept my death with a positive feeling.’ ”
Call 805-890-2193 or visit https://www.facebook.com/DiaDeLosMuertosVentura for more information on the 2015 Día de Los Muertos Celebration.